Processing facilities are often managed using process control systems. Example processing facilities include manufacturing plants, chemical plants, crude oil refineries, and ore processing plants. Among other operations, process control systems typically manage the use of motors, valves, and other industrial equipment in the processing facilities.
Process control systems routinely include wireless devices, such as wireless sensors and wireless actuators. These wireless devices typically do not have any physical connection to data and power supply cables. Instead, data is transmitted wirelessly, and internal power supplies (such as industrial-grade batteries) provide operating power to the wireless devices. A conventional wireless device generates an alarm when its batteries begin to run low. At that point, the conventional wireless device is taken out of service, old batteries are removed from the wireless device, new batteries are inserted into the wireless device, and the wireless device is placed back into service.